Recent years have seen an increasing awareness of the benefits of physical exercise and a greater understanding of the human body and its reaction to varying conditions, including coldwater immersion. As a result of our awareness of the benefits of physical exercise, exercising devices of numerous configurations have been developed to provide improved means for systematically exercising and developing different muscles and muscle groups. These devices are almost exclusively designed for use in open air and accordingly, do not take advantage of our improved understanding of the body's reaction to a cold environment to improve caloric consumption. While some exercises and exercising devices have been developed for use in water they are generally designed to alleviate the stress on one's joints created by excessive jarring, torque and torsion which often result from land or open air exercise. Such devices are not concerned with the temperature effects which can be created through water exercise and are largely of the paddle type, designed to simulate the use of barbells on land. Examples of such devices are seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,311,306 4,411,422, 4,416,451 and 4,521,011.
When the human body is immersed in cool water, heat is generated to counter the cooling effect of the water. This heat is then dissipated by convection and conduction resulting in caloric consumption. The toxic effects of immersion in cold water for long periods are now well-known. However, by providing a controlled exercise in cool water of below about 75 degrees Fahrenheit, the increased caloric consumption is highly beneficial and the toxic effects of cold water immersion are avoided.
When exercising in air, the heat generated by the body is largely retained at the skin level and heat evacuation depends on convection across the secreted sweat resulting in a loss of body fluids and salt. When exercising in cool water, these losses are prevented and the caloric consumption increased. This has been found not only to improve the quality of the exercise but may well have long term benefits by increasing the body's metabolism.
The exercising device disclosed herein provides a thorough aerobic exercising of the upper body muscles in a cool water medium. The device also employs a variable resistance load for varying degrees of difficulty without the need for pulleys, cables and/or chains which are ill-suited for underwater use. By being specifically designed for use in water, this exercising device takes full advantage of the cooling properties of the water environment to provide a superior workout and additionally makes exercise in a warm weather environment a more pleasant and attractive venture.